Who wrote ‘A Visit to the Western Goldfields’? Using Computers to Analyse Language in Historical Research

Abstract

Determining the authorship of unattributed writings can be a major issue for scholars. As this article demonstrates, computational stylistics provides a valuable methodology in helping to answer the question, ‘Who wrote it?’ Gold occupied much space in the newspapers of colonial Australia in the 1850s-70s. It kept many reporters very busy. Few, however, are known by name. An exception is Charles de Boos, a prolific reporter for the Melbourne Argus and especially the Sydney Morning Herald. Whilst it is possible to identify much of his work, questions arise over the authorship of other columns, such as the series ‘A Visit to the Western Goldfields’. Stylistic analysis has confirmed that this series is not the work of de Boos, but that of another writer who remains anonymous. No methodology answers every question, but this example illustrates the potential of computational stylistics to be an important aid in many areas of historical research.This article has been peer-reviewed.